The 5,200-square-foot villa at 620 Reef Road in the Oceanside subdivision near The Moorings has several striking architectural features that add to its basic appeal as a large, attractive waterfront property.
The first such feature a visitor encounters is a swimming pool in front of the home, set into the angle between the garage wing and the main house. Pools are most often found behind houses or sometimes on the side. Having the pool in front is quite unusual, but it works beautifully here.
The shimmering blue kidney-shaped pool is inherently attractive and appealing, with overhanging palm trees and a coral-stone deck surrounding it that homeowner Elizabeth Mayo says keeps feet cool when the sun is hot. But it is the placement that makes it so impactful.
The pool is screened from the street and circular driveway by hedges, so a guest is surprised by its presence when going up the front walk. The surprise is a pleasure in itself. Suburban architecture can be all-too-conventional in many cases and encountering a fairly dramatic deviation from the boring norm is exciting.
Beyond the surprise factor, the pool immediately creates that sense of ease and escape from daily life normally associated with going out onto a pool patio behind the house. The difference here is that a visitor has that feeling going into the home, a sense of transport and relaxation that suits a beach house in the town where the tropics are said to begin.
It is common to have decorative pools and/or fountains in front of nice houses to instill a sense of tranquility as one enters; the swimming pool here expands and magnifies that effect, while also having a practical benefit.
“The wind mostly blows off the ocean and when it is too windy on the beach, the pool is still very pleasant because it is sheltered form the wind by the house,” Mayo says.
A second striking architectural feature is found inside, at the heart of the 6-bedroom, 4.5-bath home recently listed by Cindy O’Dare of Premier Estate Properties for $2,995,000.
That feature is a monolithic coral-stone fireplace that begins on the lower level and rises up two stories to separate the living room from the dining room on the main floor.
“It is really four fireplaces – two downstairs and two upstairs,” says Mayo. “It is a wonderful focal point for the house. You don’t use it every day, but you see it every day. I have been told you could not build that fireplace today [because the thick slabs of coral are not available].”
Other notable features of the home include a soaring vaulted ceiling in the living room and a rooftop deck reached via a decorative spiral staircase that offers unobstructed views of the ocean for many miles north, south and east.
Entering the home from the front, after passing the pool, one finds a foyer with a powder room on one side beyond the foyer is a gallery that leads to a bedroom wing and staircase to the right and to the kitchen and dining room to the left.
The gallery is defined by a colonnade with shallow arches between the columns that divides it from the living room and helps give the house its Cuban-flavored Mediterranean ambiance.
“The house was built by Tom Vara, who came here from Cuba and became a successful developer,” says Mayo. “He built this house and the next four north of here on this street.”
The large glazed terracotta-colored Mexican tiles that run throughout the home’s public space also add to the Mediterranean-cum-Caribbean feel of the property.
The magnificent fireplace occupies one end of the living room. Beyond the fireplace, which can be walked around, is the dining room. Both dining and living rooms open via glass doors onto an expansive back patio, partly open to the sun and partly roofed, that makes a perfect setting for outdoor meals.
In front of the dining room is what Mayo calls, “A fantastic cook’s kitchen. It has double ovens, double microwaves, double dishwasher, a four-burner cooktop with griddle, a big Sub-Zero, a wine cooler and tons of cabinet space.”
There is also a walk-in pantry and a breakfast nook that is actually a nook, a bump-out with just enough space for table and chairs, set snugly to one side of the big kitchen, out of the flow of foot traffic.
The laundry room and entrance to the two-car attached garage is in front of the kitchen, off of the hall that leads to the pantry.
On the far side of the living room is a bedroom wing that contains the master suite and two other potential bedrooms. The master suite has glass doors that lead out onto the patio, a Jacuzzi tub and steam shower. One of the front rooms has a door that leads out to the coral-stone pool deck and makes a convenient transit to a hall bathroom. The other is set up as an office, from which the Liz and her husband Brian run two businesses.
She operates Artfully Managed, which helps artists with the business end of the enterprises; he runs a high-tech company that produces sophisticated materials detection equipment used to identify counterfeit pharmaceuticals and other fake products.
The staircase to the lower level descends from the front gallery on the bedroom wing side. It goes down to a long hallway that opens into a number of bedrooms, a room Liz Mayo uses as an art studio, a home theater room, and a suite that was occupied by the Mayos’ son until he moved out recently to take a job in another state.
The suite includes a bedroom, full bathroom, walk-in closet and a rec room where the son and his friends hung out to lift weights and play video games.
“One of the best things about this house is how versatile it is,” says Mayo. “There is plenty of space upstairs but then you have all the extra space on the lower level. My son could have all his buddies over to hang out and not disturb us. They had their own space.”
“The house would be perfect for a family with kids, but also great for a retired couple with a bunch of grandkids who have frequent visits from family and friends.”
“I consider this the ideal beach house,” says O’Dare. “The floor plan is perfect for a family and it’s a great house to throw a big party”
The house is located on a .9-acre lot across A1A from The Moorings country club, about four miles south of the shops and restaurants in Central Beach.
Liz Mayo says the neighborhood is very quiet and friendly with a good mix of full-time residents and snowbirds, retired folks and families with children.
The Mayos, who decline the word downsizing, say they are “right-sizing,” looking for a slightly smaller home someplace in or around Vero Beach, now that their son has moved out.
“We have been here 14 years, which is the longest we ever lived in one house,” says Liz Mayo. “It is time for some other family to have the chance to enjoy it now.”